[quote="panther2" post=405912][quote="Beast of the East" post=405810][quote="panther2" post=405809][quote="Beast of the East" post=405681]Nice story for those interested:
The link is only partial so I copied story
https://virginia.sportswar.com/
#11 for Power Memorial is Jack Bettridge. Both he and Alcindor were headed
to St John's as Lew wanted to be sure he would get the ball down low. The St. John's coach back then was Joe Lapchick, who had recruited Alcindor since the 8th grade. St. John's had a policy back then that at 65 years old you had to retire. Hard to believe they ran off one of the greatest coaches ever in June 1965. John Wooden swooped in during the summer of '65 and left town with the entire Alcindor family. Bettridge ended up going to SJU but never really played much. UCLA did not want Jack as they already had a quality point guard named Gayle Goodrich. There were no commitment letters back then, and when Alcindor did not show up for the early athletes only registration, new SJU coach Louie Carnessecca found out Alcindor was gone to the west coast. I was a freshmen in '65 and on the SJU track team and used to hang out with Bettridge. My Cranford NJ high school played Power Memorial early in the '63-'64 season at a Christmas Tournament in Oneonto NY. Jack would always talk about the snowball fight after the game (which Power Memorial won by 25 or so). Being Jersey boys we were pretty good at throwing snowballs versus NYC kids. Kareem had one kid in a headlock and rubbed snow all over him. That kid was NJ All-State and ended up at Davidson and played for Lefty Dreisel. The center for Cranford was 6'5" and who had to guard Kareem went to UMass and was on the team with Dr. J. He still lives in Cranford and runs the family farm: Dreyers Farm.
[Post edited by Hoodaddy22 at 05/06/2020 12:18PM][/quote]
This article contains many inaccuracies. First of all, Alcindor's parents stayed in New York. His father was a Transit Police Officer and his mother worked for the Board of Education.
Gail Goodrich never played with Alcindor at UCLA, The two guards that he played with were Mike Warren and Lucius Allen.[/quote]
Thanks Panther. It wasn't an article, it was a post on the Virginia fan board. Thanks for your corrections regarding who Alcindor played with. I read it as Wooden swooping in and inviting Alcindor and his parents to visit the campus, not that they moved to L.A. to be with him. I recall all that you said about his parents.
In any event, the most important part of that post is that we recruited Bettridge as an accessory to Alcindor coming to St. John's, validates that he had high interest in playing for Lapchick here, and asserts that Looie didn't find out until Alcindor didn't show up for athletes registration for classes. It's interesting.
When I worked at Mt. Sinai, most of my friends there were from uptown. A few of the older guys remember playing with Alcindor in the schoolyards. They say he hated getting hit, and called a ton of fouls. In the schoolyards. where physical play abounds, this was viewed by these guys as Alcindor being a big baby, especially considering his huge height advantage. So, it's kind of funny, in a city where there was a time when street cred earned in the schoolyards was almost as important as college and NBA success, Alcindor didn't have a lot of it as a result. Panther, do you recall any of this?
I know you referred to him as Alcindor. I always do when speaking of his pre-conversion name. Post, I always refer to him as Jabbar. I hope it's never perceived as a Clay/Ali type of thing. I'm not trying to offend anyone. What are your thoughts?[/quote]
No problem Beast. If Lapchick had stayed, Alcindor would have come to St. Johns. He was looking forward to playing with Sonny Dove who would have been a senior when him and John Warren were sophmores. Also, he made his UCLA decision before the school year ended and he knew Lapchick was retiring.[/quote]
Great memories but filled with disappointment.
Not waiving the retirement age for coach Lapchick was probably the biggest blunder in college basketball history.
I am very positive that St. John's would have won a couple of national championships with Alcindor, Warren, DePre, Abraham and Dove.
I think his family lived in Laurelton and I used to see him jog along the belt parkway hear his home.
I think a UCLA donor named Sam had more of an influence on Lew signing with UCLA than Wooden at the time.
I went to Xavier. We were in same conference as Power. We had a formidable team in the early 70's. Handful of guys who played D1 ball. But still, Power usually manhandled us.
